5 Songs About Seoul Neighborhoods : News : KpopStarz 5 Songs About Seoul Neighborhoods By Tamar Herman | November 15, 2014 10:24 AM EST How well do you know Seoul? Since K-Pop is created largely in Seoul, many songs have paid tribute to the city. Here are our top five songs about different neighborhoods in South Korea's capital city to show off all the glitz and glam each area has to offer. "Gangnam Style" by Psy The most widely known song about a Korean neighborhood is Psy's successful song, "Gangnam Style." More than just a funny music video with Psy dancing the famous horse dance, "Gangnam Style" is a critique of Seoul's upscale neighborhood Gangnam. The neighborhood hosts wealthy inhabitants and big companies and has become a symbol of South Korea's success in overcoming war and financial instability. Psy is critical of Gangnam, and "Gangnam Style" serves as a parody of the partying, wealthy lifestyle associated with its residents.

"Seokyeogdong" by Seo Taiji South Korea was under dictatorship in the 1980's, and Seo Taiji's neighborhood Seokyeogdong was home of the defense ministry that actually ruled over Korea rather than the country's National Assembly. Growing up in that place and that time, Seo Taiji was highly aware of the political situation and "Seokyeogdong" makes this apparent, showing students in military uniform and ending the video with soldiers heading into the house of the female lead. "Gangnam Avenue" by Orange Caramel Less critical than "Gangnam Style," "Gangnam Avenue" is a song about breaking up in Gangnam. The three Orange Caramel members walk through the brightly lit streets of Gangnam as Cinderella-like street cleaners who rip off their outfits and turn into fashionable girls. Even though Gangnam is one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in South Korea, Orange Caramel depicts the average people who make the neighborhood function. "I Can't Go To Sinchon" by Postment Sinchon, a popular neighborhood that is the home to Yonsei University, is known to be filled with college students thanks to being close proximity to not only Yonsei but also several other universities.

With numerous restaurants, bars, stores, and activities, Sinchon is a popular date neighborhood and Postmen's song is narrated by a singer who is saying that he can't go back to the neighborhood, out of fear of seeing the places that he and his ex made memories at. "Itaewon Freedom" by UV feat. JYP Similar to "Gangnam Style," "Itaewon Freedom" is a complete parody of a neighborhood, this time the Itaewon neighborhood that is the home of the majority of Seoul's international residents. The song is ridiculous and looks like something out of the 1980's, including the flashy lights and outfits, and is meant to depict how Itaewon is like another world than the rest of Seoul. As the title says, Itaewon is "free," where anything goes. © Copyright 2016 KpopStarz.com. All Rights Reserved.

How to travel 'Gangnam style' - TODAY.com Today.com How to travel 'Gangnam style' 2012-09-13T14:07:00.000Z Courtesy of KTO NY / Today An aerial view of Gangnam, an affluent district of Seoul, South Korea. You may not know it, but a destination is emerging as one of the stars of the viral hit “Gangnam Style.” The quirky music video has been viewed more than 150 million times on YouTube since mid-July, propelling South Korean rapper Psy — who was a presenter last week at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards — to international celebrity status and launching a dance craze that’s made it socially acceptable for adults to ride imaginary horses in public. But while lots of fans are aware Psy is singing about a place, many are still wondering: Where exactly is Gangnam and what is its style? It’s a question that’s music to the ears of Korean tourism officials who are suddenly facing massive interest in Gangnam — a wealthy district of Seoul. “People want to know: What is there to see?

What is there to do?” said Luis Maravi, marketing manager at the Korea Tourism Organization in New York. “The video has been incredibly popular. It’s just great — opening doors to people who otherwise may not know or be even interested about learning about this area.” Gangnam literally means “south of the river,” referring to its location relative to the Han River, which flows through the South Korean capital. The district has often been called the “Beverly Hills of Seoul” for its high-end fashion, fine dining and posh stores selling luxury brands. It’s also home to famous cosmetic surgeons, attracting visitors who come to the area to undergo plastic surgery, said Andrea Choi, a researcher at the Korean Cultural Center in Washington, who lived in Seoul for more than a decade. As the number of affluent families has grown in Gangnam, so has the glitz factor. (Psy’s video actually makes fun of all that money and conspicuous consumption .) “It’s basically for your dinner appointments, or where to hang out with friends. A lot of people go there because it’s where all the famous restaurants are and the hangout places,” Choi said.

“The center of attention just kind of drifted towards that direction.” Courtesy of KTO NY / Today The Apgujeong-dong neighborhood of Gangnam boasts trendy eateries and shops. For the best shopping, head to the Apgujeong-dong and Cheongdam-dong neighborhoods , the Korea Tourism Organization suggests, in a sample tour officials put together in response to the popularity of the “Gangnam Style” video. Choi also likes visiting the ginkgo tree-lined Garosu-gil , a street known for its fine boutiques and eateries specializing in Asian fusion fare. “So instead of chocolate fondue, you’ll find sweet red bean porridge fondue,” she said. Gangnam’s food-related attractions include the Kimchi Museum devoted to the traditional Korean pickled dish. This is the place to learn about the history of kimchi, how it’s made and why it’s good for you. There are even kimchi tasting rooms and the chance to buy your own supply in the gift shop. Courtesy of KTO NY / Today The Cheongdam-dong neighborhood of Gangnam is the home of high-end stores and boutiques.

The museum is located within COEX, one of the few malls in South Korea — a country that otherwise doesn’t have a big mall culture, Choi said. If fashion is more your thing, check out the Simone Handbag Museum , which opened in Gangnam in July and displays hundreds of purses dating from the 16th century to the present. For visitors seeking to connect to Seoul’s past, there’s the Bongeunsa Temple , built in 794 and home to thousands of Buddhist scriptures. Wherever you go in Gangnam, be prepared to spend lots of money and dress well to blend in. “In Seoul, as a city in general, people are very fashion sensitive, but the epitome of it would be Gangnam,” Choi said. More stories you might like: 10 Gangnam Style Parodies You Should Watch - Listverse Ricardo Zepeda-Esquivel December 5, 2012 Gangnam style parodies are the new Gangnam Style. I’m actually shocked at the lack of Gangnam fever in the Listverse community. As of this week, the original Gangnam Style has even surpassed the view count of the number one video on Youtube, Justin Bieber’s “Baby”.

The immensely popular single by South Korean artist PSY has accumulated over 840 million views since it was uploaded four months ago. We can all agree that this song has a catchy beat, an amusing dance and some humorous moments, but what in Thor’s name does Gangnam mean? Gangnam is a wealthy neighborhood in the South Korean city of Seoul – and it’s the party district of Korea. In the song, PSY describes the kind of guy he is, as well as the kind of girl he wants. The video depicts the crowds that inhabit Gangnam. This booming popularity has spun many parodies. These Gangnam style parodies range, in their subject, from political messages to gaming culture. Here’s a list of ten parodies you should watch, if you want to be acquainted with the trend that’s rather absurdly taking the world by storm. First, here’s the original – just in case you were lost in the woods for the past four months, and still haven’t seen it: 10 Romney Style How do you get young adults to take interest in politics these days? CollegeHumor, a comedic website, found just the solution. Let’s grab the most popular song on YouTube and make fun of one of the presidential candidates.

In this spoof, former presidential candidate Mitt Romney is depicted as a wealthy, out-of-touch, republican elitist. The video also makes reference to Romney’s private comment to donors that 47% of Americans “believe they are victims” and “will vote for this president [Obama] no matter what.” In one scene, the Romney lookalike sticks a “47%” sign on a waiter’s back. 9 Kim Jong Style With all the attention on South Korea, the North has become a little jealous. Kim Jong Un is feeling a bit left out. This Key of Awesome version makes fun of North Korean life, and depicts it as harsh, oppressive, and full of miserable citizens. The Key of Awesome has always been the number one spoofer in my opinion. If you aren’t familiar with their work, check them out! 8 MineCraft Style MineCraft is a popular indie game that can be played on a PC or Xbox 360. The objective of the game is, essentially, to build things for strategic purposes. This is one parody that will fly right over you if you have not played the game – for those who have, however, it’s a real gem.

7 NBC Olympic Style The 2012 Summer Olympics wasn’t filled with as many memorable moments as the previous one in Beijing, but there was one thing that did come out of London: an explosion of internet memes. There was the McKayla-not-impressed face, the Angry-Queen face, several funny-diver faces, and the yelling-Swedish-King face memes, to name a few. Now, the Olympics has added something else to internet culture: Olympic Style. This version makes fun of NBC sportscaster Bob Costas, and the over-the-top obsession of the NBC television network with the Olympics. 6 Lo Pan Style Admirers of the film “Big Trouble in Little China” by John Carpenter will most certainly enjoy the hell out of this one. Number five on this list features the infamous villain from the film, Lo Pan. Once again – if you haven’t seen the film, you aren’t going to understand the references. All the same, the video remains funny and entertaining for the whole family. 5 Vote Obama Style Throughout every single one of these United States, government professors and high school teachers obliged their students to watch the presidential debates. I’m sure most of the information flew right over their heads.

So where can you get an abridged and layman’s version of the issues and topics? Look no further, because Obama Style is here! 4 Obama Gangnam Style Can we ever get enough of Obama?! As far as the definition of a parody goes, this video doesn’t exactly fit the bill. I wanted to include this one because it’s amazing how well the lookalikes resemble their real counterparts. When I first watched it, I actually thought they had convinced the real Michelle to play the part. After all she is running a campaign to encourage kids to be more active, and what better way to be active than to do an hour of dancing to our favorite viral song. Another reason why I like this video: they actually put in their own dance moves! As well as the small tribute to Michael Jackson at the end. 3 Spartan Style The final spot on this list is a homage to the (arguably) most amazing video game, Halo 4. The Halo franchise has had its share of YouTube channels and podcasts, now to add to that list is a K-pop remix of the popular game. 2 Misheard Lyrics Style Immensely awkward, or comedy at its best? I’ll leave that for you to decide.

Gangnam Style isn’t necessarily one of those things you either love or hate – but I’m fairly sure that after ten different versions of the song, you’ll fall pretty well into one of those categories. At number two, we have Gangnam Style as heard by a non-Korean speaker. Depending on your sense of humor, the results are hilarious. 1 Hitler Style To finish things off with a touch of controversy, we have to include the Nazis. Hitler in his bunker has gone crazy – to the questionably appropriate tune of Gangnam style. Two of the most parodied videos on youtube are now merged in a blissful union. This could well be what future generations will remember of us, when we are gone. More Great Lists How to travel 'Gangnam style' - Itineraries Itineraries How to travel 'Gangnam style' By Itineraries An aerial view of Gangnam, an affluent district of Seoul, South Korea. By A.

Pawlowski, NBC News contributor You may not know it, but a destination is emerging as one of the stars of the viral hit “Gangnam Style.” The quirky music video has been viewed more than 150 million times on YouTube since mid-July, propelling South Korean rapper Psy — who was a presenter last week at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards — to international celebrity status and launching a dance craze that’s made it socially acceptable for adults to ride imaginary horses in public. But while lots of fans are aware Psy is singing about a place, many are still wondering: Where exactly is Gangnam and what is its style? It’s a question that’s music to the ears of Korean tourism officials who are suddenly facing massive interest in Gangnam — a wealthy district of Seoul. Follow @NBCNewsTravel “People want to know: What is there to see? What is there to do?” said Luis Maravi, marketing manager at the Korea Tourism Organization in New York. “The video has been incredibly popular.

It’s just great — opening doors to people who otherwise may not know or be even interested about learning about this area.” Gangnam literally means “south of the river,” referring to its location relative to the Han River, which flows through the South Korean capital. The district has often been called the “Beverly Hills of Seoul” for its high-end fashion, fine dining and posh stores selling luxury brands. It’s also home to famous cosmetic surgeons, attracting visitors who come to the area to undergo plastic surgery, said Andrea Choi, a researcher at the Korean Cultural Center in Washington, who lived in Seoul for more than a decade. As the number of affluent families has grown in Gangnam, so has the glitz factor. (Psy’s video actually makes fun of all that money and conspicuous consumption .) The Internet sensation PSY rocks a jam-packed plaza by performing his hit song and dance "Gangnam Style," and the TODAY anchors join in to show off their very own horse-riding moves. “It’s basically for your dinner appointments, or where to hang out with friends. A lot of people go there because it’s where all the famous restaurants are and the hangout places,” Choi said.

“The center of attention just kind of drifted towards that direction.” Related: Meet the man behind the worldwide hit For the best shopping, head to the Apgujeong-dong and Cheongdam-dong neighborhoods , the Korea Tourism Organization suggests, in a sample tour officials put together in response to the popularity of the “Gangnam Style” video. Choi also likes visiting the ginkgo tree-lined Garosu-gil , a street known for its fine boutiques and eateries specializing in Asian fusion fare. “So instead of chocolate fondue, you’ll find sweet red bean porridge fondue,” she said. Courtesy of KTO NY The Apgujeong-dong neighborhood of Gangnam boasts trendy eateries and shops. Gangnam’s food-related attractions include the Kimchi Museum devoted to the traditional Korean pickled dish. This is the place to learn about the history of kimchi, how it’s made and why it’s good for you. There are even kimchi tasting rooms and the chance to buy your own supply in the gift shop. Courtesy of KTO NY The Cheongdam-dong neighborhood of Gangnam is the home of high-end stores and boutiques.

The museum is located within COEX, one of the few malls in South Korea — a country that otherwise doesn’t have a big mall culture, Choi said. If fashion is more your thing, check out the Simone Handbag Museum , which opened in Gangnam in July and displays hundreds of purses dating from the 16th century to the present. For visitors seeking to connect to Seoul’s past, there’s the Bongeunsa Temple , built in 794 and home to thousands of Buddhist scriptures. Wherever you go in Gangnam, be prepared to spend lots of money and dress well to blend in. “In Seoul, as a city in general, people are very fashion sensitive, but the epitome of it would be Gangnam,” Choi said. More stories you might like: WHO IS PSY and WHAT IS GANGNAM STYLE? | Official Korea Tourism Organization WHO IS PSY and WHAT IS GANGNAM STYLE? Date09/20/2012 Hit4233 He’s the man of the moment on itunes today with his single “Gangnam Style’ appearing at number one on the itunes singles chart as of 18 September, 2012.

So, no doubt a lot of people are wondering who is PSY and what is Gangnam style? With 180 million views on Youtube and appearances in the past two weeks on New York’s Today Show, The Ellen Show where he taught Britney Spears how to do ‘the horse dance’ and a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live Korean music sensation PSY has certainly hit the big time. PSY is a Korean performer who has been around for a number of years, well known in Korea but with the release of his latest rap song and dance number ‘Gangnam Style’ he has become an overnight sensation to the rest of the world. Everyone is singing along with ‘Gangnam Style’ and wanting to learn how to do his ‘horse dance’. For the many listeners who have downloaded PSY’s new single, perhaps they are wondering what is Gangnam Style? Gangnam is the trendy southern suburb of Seoul city with its very popular designer fashion stores, trendy cafes and restaurants and nightclubs which attract the young and wealthy Korean celebrities. It is Seoul city’s Rodeo Drive where all the young Seoul hipsters hang out seeking all the latest trends of the emerging Korean style and fashion scene.

For visitors to Seoul it’s a great place to spend a day to see the modern young heart of Seoul and enjoy the many attractions it offers. Go shopping on Cheongdam-dong and Apgujeong Shopping Streets and pick up some bargains in the trendy fashion stores. These streets are the most popular shopping areas frequented by Korean celebrities and you may even be lucky enough to see PSY or some of Korea’s famous girl bands, performers or actors shopping in this area. There are many great cafes and bars in this area with places like Gorilla in the Kitchen owned by famous Korean movie star Bae Yong Joon where you can enjoy lunch. There are also numerous excellent Korean restaurants where you can try traditional Korean cuisine. There are many excellent salons/spas in this area where you can enjoy some pampering – have a facial or a massage and treat yourself after a busy day shopping. At night the clubs of Gangnam come alive and there are many to choose from where you can see the unique Gangnam style for yourself and you never know, perhaps you can even get a private lesson from PSY on how to do the ‘horse dance’.

For more detailed information on what to do and see in Gangnam, visit and enjoy some ‘Gangnam Style’ on your next visit to Seoul. See PSY ‘Gangnam Style’ video on Youtube for yourself: Dated: 18 September, 2012 Gangnam Style's social commentary Email a friend SOUTH Korean rapper PSY's Gangnam Style video has 220 million YouTube views and counting, and it's easy to see why. No Korean language skills are needed to enjoy the chubby, massively entertaining performer's crazy horse-riding dance, the song's addictive chorus and the video's exquisitely odd series of misadventures. Beneath the antic, funny surface of his world-conquering song, however, is a sharp social commentary about the country's newly rich and Gangnam, the affluent district where many of them live. Gangnam is only a small slice of Seoul, but it inspires a complicated mixture of desire, envy and bitterness.

Here's a look at the meaning of Gangnam Style - and at the man and neighbourhood behind the sensation: THE PLACE: Gangnam is the most coveted address in Korea, but less than two generations ago it was little more than some forlorn homes surrounded by flat farmland and drainage ditches. The district of Gangnam, which literally means "south of the river", is about half the size of Manhattan. About 1 per cent of Seoul's population lives there, but many of its residents are very rich. The average Gangnam apartment costs about $US716,000 ($685,000), a sum that would take an average South Korean household 18 years to earn. The seats of business and government power in Seoul have always been north of the Han River, in the neighbourhoods around the royal palaces, and many old-money families still live there. Gangnam, however, is new money, the beneficiary of a development boom that began in the 1970s. As the price of high-rise apartments skyrocketed during a real estate investment frenzy in the early 2000s, landowners and speculators became wealthy practically overnight. The district's rich families got even richer.

The new wealth drew the trendiest boutiques and clubs and a proliferation of plastic surgery clinics, but it also provided access to something considered vital in modern South Korea: top-notch education in the form of prestigious private tutoring and schools. Gangnam households spend nearly four times more on education than the national average. The notion that Gangnam residents have risen not by following the traditional South Korean virtues of hard work and sacrifice, but simply by living on a coveted piece of geography, irks many. The neighbourhood's residents are seen by some as monopolising the country's best education opportunities, the best cultural offerings and the best infrastructure, while spending big on foreign luxury goods to highlight their wealth. "Gangnam inspires both envy and distaste," said Kim Zakka, a Seoul-based pop music critic. "Gangnam residents are South Korea's upper class, but South Koreans consider them self-interested, with no sense of noblesse oblige." In a sly, entertaining way, PSY's song pushes these cultural buttons. THE GUY: More mainstream K-Pop performers, already famous in South Korea and across Asia, have tried and failed to crack the American market.

GangnamSource:AP So how did PSY - aka Park Jae-sang - a stocky, 34-year-old rapper who was fined nearly $US4500 for smoking marijuana after his 2001 debut, get to be the one teaching Britney Spears how to do the horse-riding dance on American TV? "I'm not handsome, I'm not tall, I'm not muscular, I'm not skinny," PSY recently said on the American Today show. "But I'm sitting here." He attributed his success to "soul or attitude". PSY, whose stage name stems from the first three letters of the word psycho, has always styled himself as a quirky outsider. But he is from a wealthy family and was actually raised and educated south of the Han River, near Gangnam. He's an excellent dancer, a confident rapper and he's funny, but another reason for his breakthrough could be that less-than-polished image, said Jae-Ha Kim, a Chicago Tribune pop culture columnist and former music critic. Gangnam in the 1980sSource:AP South Korean music has scored big in Asia with bands featuring handsome, stylish, makeup-wearing young men, including Super Junior and Boyfriend.

But seeing such singers "makes some Americans nervous", Kim said. "People in America are comfortable with Asian guys who look like Jackie Chan and Jet Li, who are good-looking, but they're not the equivalent of Brad Pitt or Keanu Reeves," Kim said. Part of the initial interest in Gangnam Style, Kim said, was a kind of "freak-show mentality, where people are like, 'This guy is funny.' But then you look at his choreography and you realise that you really have to know how to dance to do what he does. He's really good." THE SONG: PSY, at times wearing sleeveless dress shirts with painted-on untied bowties, repeatedly flouts South Koreans' popular notions of Gangnam in his video. Instead of cavorting in nightclubs, he parties with retirees on a disco-lighted tour bus. Instead of working out in a high-end health club, he lounges in a sauna with two tattooed gangsters. As he struts along with two beautiful models, they're pelted in the face with massive amounts of wind-blown trash and sticky confetti. The throne from which he delivers his hip-hop swagger is a toilet.

The song explores South Koreans' "love-hate relationship with Gangnam," said Baak Eun-seok, a pop music critic. The rest of South Korea sees Gangnam residents as everything PSY isn't, he said: good-looking because of plastic surgery, stylish because they can splurge on luxury goods, slim thanks to yoga and personal trainers. "PSY looks like a country bumpkin. He's a far cry from the so-called 'Gangnam Style,'" Baak said. "He's parodying himself." The video abounds with ironic, "not upper-class" images that ordinary South Koreans recognise, said Park Byoung-soo, a social commentator who runs a popular visual art blog. Old men play a Korean board game and middle-age women wear wide-brimmed hats to keep the sun off their faces as they walk backward - a popular way to exercise in South Korea. PSY's character in the video is modelled on the clueless heroes of movies like The Naked Gun and Dumb & Dumber, he told Yonhap news agency earlier this year. He has also said his goal is to "dress classy, but dance cheesy". Others see more than just a goofy outsider.

"PSY does something in his video that few other artists, Korean or otherwise, do: He parodies the wealthiest, most powerful neighbourhood in South Korea," writes Sukjong Hong, creative nonfiction fellow at Open City, an online magazine. Who is PSY and What is Gangnam Style? - TravelLiveLearn.com TravelLiveLearn.com Who is PSY and What is Gangnam Style? Home / Who is PSY and What is Gangnam Style? No comments yet He’s the man of the moment on iTunes today with his single Gangnam Style appearing at number one on the iTunes singles chart as of 18 September, 2012. No doubt a lot of people are wondering who is PSY and what is ‘Gangnam style’? With 180 million views on Youtube, and appearances in the past two weeks on New York’s Today Show, The Ellen Show where he taught Britney Spears how to do ‘the horse dance’, and a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live, Korean music sensation PSY has certainly hit the big time.

PSY is a Korean performer who has been around for a number of years, well-known in Korea, but with the release of his latest rap song and dance number Gangnam Style he has become an overnight sensation to the rest of the world. Everyone is singing along and wanting to learn how to do his ‘horse dance’. For the many listeners who have downloaded PSY’s new single, perhaps they are wondering what is ‘Gangnam style’? Gangnam is the trendy southern suburb of Seoul city with its very popular designer fashion stores, trendy cafes and restaurants and nightclubs which attract the young and wealthy Korean celebrities. It is Seoul city’s Rodeo Drive where all the young Seoul hipsters hang out seeking all the latest trends of the emerging Korean style and fashion scene. For visitors to Seoul it’s a great place to spend a day to see the modern young heart of Seoul and enjoy the many attractions it offers. Go shopping on Cheongdam-dong and Apgujeong Shopping Streets and pick up some bargains in the trendy fashion stores. These streets are the most popular shopping areas frequented by Korean celebrities, and you may even be lucky enough to see PSY or some of Korea’s famous girl bands, performers or actors shopping in this area.

There are many great cafes and bars in this area with places like Gorilla in the Kitchen owned by famous Korean movie star Bae Yong Joon where you can enjoy lunch. Additionally, you’ll discover numerous excellent Korean restaurants where you can try traditional cuisine. Terrific salons/spas are also plentiful, so you can enjoy some pampering – have a facial or a massage and treat yourself after a busy day shopping. At night the clubs of Gangnam come alive and there are many to choose from where you can see the unique Gangnam style for yourself and you never know, perhaps you can even get a private lesson from PSY on how to do the ‘horse dance’. Gangnam Style, Dissected: The Subversive Message Within South Korea's Music Video Sensation - The Atlantic The Atlantic Gangnam Style, Dissected: The Subversive Message Within South Korea's Music Video Sensation Most Popular Print Text Size Beneath the catchy dance beat and hilarious scenes of Seoul's poshest neighborhood, there might be a subtle message about wealth, class, and value in South Korean society. Reddit Park Jaesang is an unlikely poster boy for South Korea's youth-obsessed, highly lucrative , and famously vacuous pop music.

Park, who performs as Psy (short for psycho), is a relatively ancient 34, has been busted for marijuana and for avoiding the country's mandatory military service, and is not particularly good-looking. His first album got him fined for "inappropriate content" and the second was banned. He's mainstream in the way that South Korea's monolithically corporate media demands of its stars, who typically appear regularly on TV variety and even game shows, but as a harlequin, a performer known for his parodies, outrageous costumes, and jokey concerts . Still, there's a long history of fools and court jesters as society's most cutting social critics, and he might be one of them. Now, Park has succeeded where the K-Pop entertainment-industrial-complex and its superstars have failed so many times before: he's made it in America. The opening track on his sixth album, "Gangnam Style" (watch it at right), has earned 49 million hits on YouTube since its mid-July release, but the viral spread was just the start. The American rapper T-Pain was retweeted 2,400 times when he wrote "Words cannot even describe how amazing this video is." Pop stars expressed admiration.

Billboard is extolling his commercial viability; Justin Bieber's manager is allegedly interested. The Wall Street Journal posted "5 Must-See" response videos. On Monday, a worker at L.A.'s Dodger stadium noticed Park in the stands and played "Gangnam Style" over the stadium P.A. system as excited baseball fans spontaneously reproduced Park's distinct dance in the video. "I have to admit I've watched it about 15 times," said a CNN anchor . "Of course, no one here in the U.S. has any idea what Psy is rapping about." MORE ON KOREA Photos of the Secret North Korea I certainly didn't, beyond the basics: Gangnam is a tony Seoul neighborhood, and Park's "Gangnam Style" video lampoons its self-importance and ostentatious wealth, with Psy playing a clownish caricature of a Gangnam man. That alone makes it practically operatic compared to most K-Pop.

But I spoke with two regular observers of Korean culture to find out what I was missing, and it turns out that the video is rich with subtle references that, along with the song itself, suggest a subtext with a surprisingly subversive message about class and wealth in contemporary South Korean society. That message would be awfully mild by American standards -- this is no "Born in the U.S.A." -- but South Korea is a very different place, and it's a big deal that even this gentle social satire is breaking records on Korean pop charts long dominated by cotton candy. "Korea has not had a long history of nuanced satire," Adrian Hong, a Korean-American consultant whose wide travels make him an oft-quoted observer of Korean issues, said of South Korea's pop culture. "In fact, when you asked me about the satire element, I was super skeptical.

I don't expect much from K-Pop to begin with, so the first 50 times I heard this, I was just like, 'Allright, whatever.' I sat down to look at it and thought, 'Actually, there's some nuance here.'" One of the first things Hong pointed to in explaining the video's subtext was, believe it or not, South Korea's sky-high credit card debt rate. In 2010, the average household carried credit card debt worth a staggering 155 percent of their disposable income (for comparison, the U.S. average just before the sub-prime crisis was 138 percent). There are nearly five credit cards for every adult. South Koreans have been living on credit since the mid-1990s, first because their country's amazing growth made borrowing seem safe, and then in the late 1990s when the government encouraged private spending to climb out of the Asian financial crisis. The emphasis on heavy spending, coupled with the country's truly astounding, two-generation growth from agrarian poverty to economic powerhouse, have engendered the country with an emphasis on hard work and on aspirationalism, as well as the materialism that can sometimes follow.

Gangnam, Hong said, is a symbol of that aspect of South Korean culture. The neighborhood is the home of some of South Korea's biggest brands, as well as $84 billion of its wealth , as of 2010. That's seven percent of the entire country's GDP in an area of just 15 square miles. A place of the most conspicuous consumption, you might call it the embodiment of South Korea's one percent. "The neighborhood in Gangnam is not just a nice town or nice neighborhood. The kids that he's talking about are not Silicon Valley self-made millionaires. They're overwhelmingly trust-fund babies and princelings," he explained. This skewering of the Gangnam life can be easy to miss for non-Korean. Psy boasts that he's a real man who drinks a whole cup of coffee in one gulp, for example, insisting he wants a women who drinks coffee. "I think some of you may be wondering why he's making such a big deal out of coffee, but it's not your ordinary coffee," U.S.-based Korean blogger Jea Kim wrote at her site, My Dear Korea .

(Her English-subtitled translation of the video is at right.) "In Korea, there's a joke poking fun at women who eat 2,000-won (about $2) ramen for lunch and then spend 6,000 won on Starbucks coffee." They're called Doenjangnyeo, or "soybean paste women" for their propensity to crimp on essentials so they can over-spend on conspicuous luxuries, of which coffee is, believe it or not, one of the most common. "The number of coffee shops has gone up tremendously, particularly in Gangnam," Hong said. "Coffee shops have become the place where people go to be seen and spend ridiculous amounts of money." The video is "a satire about Gangnam itself but also it's about how people outside Gangnam pursue their dream to be one of those Gangnam residents without even realizing what it really means," Kim explained to me when I got in touch with her. Koreans "really wanted to be one of them," but she says that feeling is changing, and "Gangnam Style" captures people's ambivalence.

"Koreans have been kind of caught up in this spending to look wealthy, and Gangnam has really been the leading edge of that," Hong said. "I think a lot of what [Psy] is pointing out is how silly that is. The whole video is about him thinking he's a hotshot but then realizing he's just, you know, at a children's playground, or thinking he's playing polo or something and realizes he's on a merry-go-round." "Human society is so hollow, and even while filming I felt pathetic." Psy hits all the symbols of Gangnam opulence, but each turns out to be something much more modest, as if suggesting that Gangnam-style wealth is not as fabulous as it might seem. We think he's at a beach in the opening shot, but it turns out to be a sandy playground. He visits a sauna not with big-shot businessmen but with mobsters, Kim points out, and dances not in a nightclub but on a bus of middle-aged tourists. He meets his love interest in the subway.

Kim thinks that Psy's strut though a parking garage, two models at his side as trash and snow fly at them, is meant as a nod to the common rap-video trope of the star walking down a red carpet covered in confetti. "I think he's pointing out the ridiculousness of the materialism," Hong said. (If you're wondering about the bizarre episodes in the elevator and with the red sports car, as I was, it turns out that those are probably just excuses for a couple of cameos by TV personalities, which is apparently common in South Korean music videos.) None of this commentary is particularly overt, which is actually what could make "Gangnam Style" so subversive. Social commentary is just not really done in mainstream Korean pop music, Hong explained. "The most they'll do is poke fun at themselves a little bit. It's really been limited." But Psy "is really mainstreaming it, and he's doing it in a way that maybe not everybody quite realizes." Park Jaesang isn't just unusual because of his age, appearance, and style; he writes his own songs and choreographs his own videos, which is unheard of in K-Pop. But it's more than that.

Maybe not coincidentally, he attended both Boston University and the Berklee College of Music, graduating from the latter. His exposure to American music's penchant for social commentary, and the time spent abroad that may have given him a new perspective on his home country, could inform his apparently somewhat critical take on South Korean society. Of course, it's just a music video, and a silly one at that. Does it really have to be about anything more complicated? "If I hadn't seen that behind-the-scenes, I would have said he's just poking fun at himself," Hong said of the official making-of video, which is embedded at right. It's mostly of Park or Psy having fun on set, but at one point he pauses in filming. "Human society is so hollow, and even while filming I felt pathetic. Each frame by frame was hollow," he sighs, apparently deadly serious. It's a jarring moment to see the musician drop his clownish demeanor and reveal the darker feelings behind this lighthearted-seeming song. Although, Hong noted, "hollow" doesn't capture it: "It's a word that's a mixture or shallow or hollow or vain," he explained.

Kim seemed to feel the same way about the video, though it's so cheery on the surface. "He was satirizing more than just this one neighborhood," she told me. On her blog, she suggested the video portrayed the Gangnam area, a symbol of South Korea's national aspirations for prosperity and status, as "nothing but materialistic and about people who are chasing rainbows." Pretty heavy for a viral pop hit. "I think it all ties back to the same thing: the pursuit of materialism, the pursuit of form over function," Hong said. "Koreans made extraordinary gains as a country, in terms of GDP and everything else, but that growth has not been equitable. I think the young people are finally realizing that. There's a genuine backlash. ... You're seeing a huge amount of resentment from youth about their economic circumstances." Even if Psy wasn't specifically nodding to this when he wrote the song and shot the video, it's part of the contemporary South Korean society that he inhabits.

"The context is all of these tensions going on where Koreans are realizing where they're at, how they got there, what they need to do to move forward." It's difficult to imagine that much of this could be apparent to non-Koreans, which Kim told me is why she decided to write it up on her blog. "I thought people outside Korea might take it just as another funny music video. So I wanted to explain what's behind [it] and the song." Still, is it possible that the video could have caught on for reasons beyond just its admittedly catchy beat and hilarious visuals? After all, Korean pop really does not seem to typically do well in the U.S., and this has gotten enormous. "It's kind of the first genuine pop-culture crossover from Korea," Hong said, noting it's "more in the American style." Maybe it's possible that, even if the specific nods to the quirks of this Seoul neighborhood couldn't possibly cross over, and even if the lyrics are nonsense to non-Korean speakers, there's something about obviously skewering the ostentatiously rich that just might resonate in today's America.

Whatever the case, Koreans seem to be proud of their first big musical export to the U.S., Hong said, noting that the Korean media has meticulously covered the video's tremendous reception here. "Koreans are definitely talking about it and pointing to it as a source of national pride." Maybe there's something relatable about Gangnam style.

Question: Gangnam, made famous in the song 'Gangnam Style' by Psy, is a wealthy suburb of which city?
Answer: Seoul